Hot legs, and not the good kind… any medical advice?

This is going to be a weird blog.  For the last 10 days or so, I’ve been dealing with foot pain.  The pain isn’t as bad as it was a week ago, but I think it’s because I’ve stopped walking so much.  

But my toes on both feet and my soles always seem to be very hot.

And now, the last three nights, I’ve awoken around 5:30am with burning legs from the knees down.  It usually takes them a couple hours to die down.  My friend Evie at the senior center says it’s neuropathy, welcome to old age.

I was just wondering if I have athlete’s foot and not be aware of it?  I bought anti-fungal cream 3 days ago and been using it twice daily—but now with the burning legs, I don’t know. 

Here’s some unflattering photos of my feet (and legs) taken last night around 10:30pm.

FYI, the last photo is my compression socks.  I had pretty swollen ankles earlier this week, and have been wearing compression socks for 5-6 hours every day. 

Do these feet look fungal to you?  I’m open to suggestions, thanks everyone.

 

 

 

Amazing but true: A look at my expenses 4 years ago and today

A few years back, a friend told me my ‘numbers blogs’ were boring.  She was right, but I couldn’t help it; I love numbers. 

I found this table of my monthly expenses from a blog I’d written in July 2021 and thought I’d update it to show my monthly expenses now and what a difference 4 years can make. 

I was more than surprised, I was amazed. 

MONTHLY EXPENSE	JUL 2021	AUG 2025
RENT	790.00	880.00
XFINITY TV/PHONE/INTERNET	234.00	80.00
HEALTH INSURANCE	145.00	55.00
GROCERIES	240.00	320.00
UTILITIES - ELECTRIC	45.00	55.00
KEURIG COFFEE SUBSCRIPTION	40.00	45.00
BARBERSHOP	20.00	25.00
RENTERS INSURANCE	10.00	10.00
DENTAL INSURANCE	15.00	0
AMBULANCE INSURANCE	8.00	8.00
PRESCRIPTIONS	15.00	0
STREAMING SERVICES	20.00	35.00
CELLPHONE (T-MOBILE, MINT)	65.00	20.00
DINING OUT	50.00	75.00
STORE SHOPPING	150.00	200.00
ONLINE SHOPPING	225.00	250.00
LUNCHES AT SENIOR CENTER	0	25.00

 

JULY 2021 MONTHLY TOTAL:  $2082.00

AUG 2025  MONTHLY TOTAL:  $2082.00

They came out to the same monthly total!  That was the last thing I expected.  I should add that while my monthly totals look low, I wind up spending 4-5K more in the year.

High priced items like a new phone or tablet, donations to my favorite charities over the holidays, medical & dental bills.  But still, the “minimum spending” list above… strange how the total dollar amount remained the same. 

But like I said, there’s always other expenses.  I’m meeting with an oral surgeon today at 1:30 to discuss a bone graft and implant bridge that will run $7500.00 or more. 

And a year from now, my monthly health insurance is going to QUADRUPLE when I’m kicked off Pennie (the ACA Health Exchange in Pennsylvania) and forced go on Medicare.

It sucks getting old but it beats the alternative!

 

 

Lunch with Evie & friends and some (ugh) barbed wire

This past Wednesday, I went out to lunch with a few people from the Senior Center.  We went to Red Lobster on McKnight Road, and I wasn’t sure I was going to share it here as I blogged our trip there a year ago. 

But as long as we’re on the subject of seniors and the like…

Evie with a quiet smile, we were waiting to be seated

There is a woman at the center who feels the need to confront me every chance she gets.  I’ve been brushing her off, chalking up her meanness to her age or one too many bar fights, who knows.  But I do know she is asking for it. 

This all began several weeks ago, when we went to a restaurant she recommended, the Rockefeller Grille.  She sat at a table across from me, kept trying to get my attention.  Every time I looked her way, she’d say “Having fun yet?  Then why aren’t you smiling?  Smile!”  and prop up both corners of her mouth with her fingers.   

Who is this woman?  I knew she was older than me, and in much better shape.  She had a tough exterior, like those prison matrons you see in movies about women in jail.  We’ll call her Barb Wire.

At our next outing, I’m at the center chatting with Dennis while waiting for our Access shuttle.  Barb Wire comes over and says “Where did you grow up?  City or country?”  Dennis says city, I say country.  She looks at me and says “I think you’re lying.  You’re too soft to be from the country.” 

I shrug my shoulders and ask Dennis if he wants to wait outside with me.

A couple Fridays ago, I’m chatting with Melvin when she comes over to us.  She asks if either of us had ever seen a snake up close.  We both say yes.  She tells us how a snake got in her house once, and she held a broomstick next to it until it curled around it, then she took it outside.

She turns to me and says “I bet you would’ve run out of there screaming like a little girl.  Just admit it.”  

She’s so awful it’s almost laughable!  If I was a woman, I would’ve socked her one.  I tell Melvin I’m going to the mens room to wash up before lunch. 

Getting back to our lunch at Red Lobster this week… I sat in a booth with Evie, Dennis and Wild Irish Rose.

Dennis got the shrimp linquini, Rose got the steak & lobster.  (I got the crispy flounder, Evie got the Admiral’s Feast to have extra for her dinner.)

We’re having a good time, laughing & kidding each other.  Barb Wire gets up from her table in the back, comes over to ours and asks if we heard her fish story.  The time she went fishing at some lake near some prison.

She tells us after she cast her line, a man walked up and asked if he could leave his wallet and wristwatch with her while he took a swim.  She said yes, he jumped in and swam across the lake but didn’t come back.  She waited an hour or so, then approached one of the prison guards patrolling the area.  Yes he saw the man.  He told her the man was so tired after his swim, he walked home.

Um… where was this mystery man’s clothes, his shoes?  Did he walk home in his skivvies?  This story is pretty fishy.

She says there was no ID in the wallet, and it took her a week to track the man down and return his items.

If Barb Wire was nicer, she'd look very similar to this person cap included 

She then asks us what we would’ve done in her place.  No one said anything, so I said “Well, if there was no ID I would’ve checked the wallet for cash then tossed it in a corner mailbox.  And added the watch to my collection.”   Barb Wire glared down at me and said “THAT TELLS ME WHAT KIND OF PERSON YOU REALLY ARE!  I WILL NEVER TRUST YOU WITH ANYTHING OF MINE!  EVER!”

We sat there in silence.  Evie asks if I will let her out of the booth so she can go to the ladies room.  I ask Barb Wire to step back so I can slide out and let Evie out.  As Evie scoots across the bench, Wire says “DON’T JUST STAND THERE, HELP HER!  SHE’S YOUR FRIEND ISN”T SHE?”

I can’t take anymore of Barb Wire.  I did tell one of the women who work at the center about her a couple weeks ago, but was only told they’ve gotten complaints from others about her as well.

Now of course this can’t continue… I spent half my life being bullied by classmates, coworkers, family members.  I’m old now and not afraid to stand up to these types.  I do regret answering her lunatic question in the restaurant, and I’ll do my best to steer clear of this person going forward.  But if she comes at me again, I guarantee she’s going to hear it.

Thanks for listening and letting me get this off my chest.  Stay tuned! 

 

So… if you could do it all over again, would you do it all over again?

Here is yours truly from earlier this summer, and younger me from the summer of 1980, a couple months shy of my 19th birthday.  Doug from 1980 appears to be looking at my big belly and saying “That’s going to be me in 45 years?  No way!”  

Yes way, 1980 Doug!  You’re going to be okay until your forties, then look out.  And you can forget about all that hair on top too!

Seeing these photos together reminds me of a great novel I read way back in 1988. The book bears the distinction of being the first hardcover I bought after finishing school and landing my first IT position in Pittsburgh.  I could only afford paperbacks before.

I wanted to build a library which I did wind up doing over the next 30 years, only to donate most of my collection to the local library after I retired and downsized.

Anyway, that first novel I bought was ‘Replay’ by Ken Grimwood.  I won’t tell you the whole story, but it begins with a middle aged man named Jeff Winston—balding, obese, wheezes from years of smoking.  In fact, he’s attempting to catch his breath while taking a shower, while his wife (whom he refers to as “The Shrew”) is outside the bathroom yelling at him, when he suffers a heart attack.

There’s darkness, and when he opens his eyes he’s in bed—in a room he hasn’t seen in decades, his childhood bedroom.  He gets out of bed, amazed how slender he is and filled with vitality, is he dreaming?  Is this Heaven?  This can’t be happening. 

Jeff makes his way downstairs, is shocked to see his dad alive & well after all these years, watching tv.  He picks up the newspaper and looks at the date; it’s the year 1963. And somehow, he’s 18 again.

I don’t want to give away the rest of the story, but after Jeff bets his savings on a couple of big league games (he knew the outcomes) and wins a fortune, he goes to the beach to reflect on his future.  Will the next 25 years be the same as before? 

An attractive young woman approaches, and he realizes it’s his future wife.  In fact, they began dating after meeting on this beach and she asked him for a light for her cigarette.  But this time when she comes up and asks for one, he says “sorry” and high-tails it back to his car! 

Things are going to turn out a lot differently this time ‘round.

Anyway, if you had the chance to do it all over again—wake up in the past and be 18 again—would you?  With all the knowlege you have now?  I’m not sure I’d want to live all those years again, but for a long time I used to play a little scenario in my head; if I could send a letter back thru time to my younger self, would I do it?  What would I write to him?  Could I convince my younger self it really came from the future?

I was a big believer then in ESP, astral projection, UFOs, the whole kit n’ kaboodle.  A letter from my future self, sure why not! 

Well, that will never happen of course.  But speaking of books, there’s a shop on the corner of Lincoln & Balph in my neighborhood that used to sell antiques, and just reopened as a vintage bookstore.  It looks wonderful inside, and the first bookstore I’ve seen around here in years.

Y’know, I’ve always wanted a personal library…

 

Happy Birthday Mom, Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

Dad & Mom were married on this date, August 7, 1958.  It was also my mom’s 18th birthday, and 2 weeks after Dad’s 21st birthday.

Even though Mom was legally an adult, her mother refused to give her blessing until Mom signed a note promising she’d wait a decent amount of time (I think a year) before having her first child. 

Grandma B didn’t want anyone wrongly thinking these two got married young because they HAD to. 

By the age of 30, Mom had 5 kids (with a sixth one coming 5 years later).  I’ve written about them here so much before, anything I say now would just be repeating myself. 

But I’ve never shared these two photos; the top one is pretty faded and the bottom one (Mom’s 30th birthday)…. I look like a damn maniac.  Sorry everyone. 

Happy Birthday Mom, I love & miss you

 

The single man’s guide to homemade potato salad (there’s a quicker, easier way)

In the summertime, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a hamburger or all beef frank with a side of potato salad for my dinner.  So does everyone else, because half the time when I go to the deli and ask for potato salad, they’re sold out.

I get equally bugged when they DO have it—either some of the potatoes are undercooked, or “there’s no onions in this batch, sorry”.  And I’m being charged a small fortune for one scoop of the stuff.

If I look up recipes online, I see “Fill a 10 quart pot with water, peel and chop 3-4 pounds of russet potatoes…”   NO!  I’m just one person!

Here’s mine.  Recently I saw a hillbilly woman on Youtube talking about using canned potatoes in place of regular potatoes for her recipes (just rinse ‘em real good first) so that’s what I did here. 

Doug’s Easy-Peasy Potato Salad

• 1 15 oz can diced potatoes  (The no brand label only cost 79 cents!)
• 2 hard boiled eggs, one chopped, one sliced
• 1/4 cup diced onions, 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup Hellmann’s or Duke’s Mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

1.  Drain, rinse canned potatoes under WARM water well, add to large bowl.  (If you buy them diced like I did, there’s no chopping!)

2.  Add in one chopped hard-boiled egg, diced celery & onion.

3.  In a separate bowl, blend together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper.  Spoon over your vegs and gently mix together to avoid mashing up the potatoes. 

4. Top with sliced hard-boiled egg, cover & chill for an hour. 

(UPDATE: This tasted surprisingly better after chilling several more hours.)

You may need to shake a little salt on ‘em before eating, I didn’t want to risk oversalting as it only makes 1 lb. of salad, enough for 2-3 servings. 

You could also add some fresh chives or crumbled bacon, I may do that next time; I was just making these the way my mom or grandma did years ago—minus the skinning, chopping & boiling potatoes, of course.